REAL Zero – Reducing refrigerant emissions & leakage- feedback from the IOR Project

In October 2007, Jane Gartshore’s Presidential Address highlighted the significant problems associated with leakage of HFC and HCFC type refrigerants. Refrigerant leakage has an adverse impact on climate change both directly because these refrigerants are very powerful greenhouse gases, and also indirectly because leaking systems are less energy efficient. There are also high financial penalties associated with the additional energy and service costs, downtime, and food wastage or lost production. In recent years awareness of the issue has increased significantly both through the implementation of the European Ozone Depleting Substances and Fluorinated Gas (F-Gas) Regulation and the activities of the Institute of Refrigeration. The Regulations aim to improve containment of HFC refrigerants through leak testing, engineer qualification and record keeping. The Institute of Refrigeration has provided practical information to help industry comply with the F-Gas Regulation and make a real reduction in refrigerant leakage. This has been achieved mainly through the REAL Zero (Refrigerant Emissions And Leakage Zero) project. This paper summarises Real Zero, provides background literature on the global issue of refrigerant leakage, gives some up to date information from the analysis of current F-Gas use in installed systems and leakage record data, and provides a discussion on the way forward.